Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A tool for circular or other piercing.
- noun A tool for forcing a pin, bolt, or rivet in or out of a hole.
- noun A tool for stamping a design on a surface.
- noun A tool for making a countersink.
- intransitive verb To make (a hole or opening), as by using a punch or similar implement.
- intransitive verb To pierce something; make a hole or opening.
- transitive verb To hit with a sharp blow of the fist.
- transitive verb To drive (the fist) into or through something.
- transitive verb To drive (a ball, for example) with the fist.
- transitive verb To make (a hole) by thrusting the fist.
- transitive verb Archaic To poke or prod with a stick.
- transitive verb Western US To herd (cattle).
- transitive verb To depress (the accelerator of a car) forcefully.
- transitive verb To depress (a key or button, for example) in order to activate a device or perform an operation.
- transitive verb To enter (data) by keying.
- transitive verb Baseball To hit (a ball) with a quick short swing.
- noun A blow with the fist.
- noun Impressive or effective force; impact. synonym: vigor.
- idiom (beat to the punch) To make the first decisive move.
- idiom (punch the clock) To register one's arrive or departure at a job.
- idiom (punch the clock) To be employed at a job with regular hours.
- noun A beverage of fruit juices and sometimes a soft drink or carbonated water, often spiced and mixed with a wine or liquor base.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Short and fat.
- noun A short, fat fellow.
- noun A short-legged, barrel-bodied horse, of an English draft-breed.
- Same as
punish . - To give a blow, dig, or thrust to; beat with blows of the fist: as, to
punch One on the head, or to punch one's head. - noun A short humpbacked hook-nosed puppet, with a squeaking voice, the chief character in a street puppet-show called “Punch and Judy,” who strangles his child, beats his wife (Judy) to death, belabors a policeman, and does other tragical and outrageous things in a comical way.
- To make a hole or holes in with a punch or some similar instrument; pierce; perforate: as, to
punch a metal plate. - To make with or as with a punch: as, to
punch a hole in something. - noun A tool the working end of which is pointed, blunt, a continuous edge inclosing an area, or a pattern in relief or intaglio, and which acts either by pressure or percussion (applied in the direction of its longitudinal axis) to perforate or indent a solid material, or to drive out or in objects inserted in previously formed perforations or cavities.
- noun A tool used to force nail-heads below the surface.
- noun A stone-masons' chipping-tool; a puncheon.
- noun In surgery, an instrument used for extracting the stumps of teeth.
- noun In decorative art, a tool in the form of a bar, sometimes fitted with a handle and engraved at the end in a cross, concentric ring, or other device. It is used for impressing ornamental patterns upon clay or other plastic materials.
- noun The engraved model of a printing-type on the end of a steel rod: so called from its being punched in a copper bar which makes the matrix, or a reversed impression of the model.
- noun In carpentry, studding by which a roof is supported.
- noun In hydraulic engineering, a short length placed on the top of a pile to permit the monkey of a piledriver to bear upon it when it has been driven too low to be struck directly; a dolly.
- noun In coal-mining, same as
pout . - noun A punch operated by the rolling action of two levers on one fulcrum, forming a toggle.
- noun A blow, dig, or thrust, us with the fist, elbow, or knee: as, to give one a punch in the ribs or a punch on the head.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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Your goal is to deliver a short, punchy remark—thus the term punch line.
How To Be Funny JON MACKS 2003
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Your goal is to deliver a short, punchy remark—thus the term punch line.
How To Be Funny JON MACKS 2003
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Your goal is to deliver a short, punchy remark—thus the term punch line.
How To Be Funny JON MACKS 2003
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Your goal is to deliver a short, punchy remark—thus the term punch line.
How To Be Funny JON MACKS 2003
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Your goal is to deliver a short, punchy remark—thus the term punch line.
How To Be Funny JON MACKS 2003
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Your goal is to deliver a short, punchy remark—thus the term punch line.
How To Be Funny JON MACKS 2003
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(Note to innocents: the ‘magic’ in the punch is alcohol.)
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(Note to innocents: the ‘magic’ in the punch is alcohol.)
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What you described as a punch was the sound of a fox's head being crushed, which is why Ailsa accused him of insanity.
Fox Evil Walters, Minette 2002
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But to run a poll with the question “should homosexuals be executed” has the same effect on me as receiving a sneek rabbit-punch from a 10 foot giant.
Executing homosexuals shouldn’t even be a question… « My Liberal Democrat Political Ramblings… 2009
colleen commented on the word punch
"Power or ability to produce a striking effect; energy; effectiveness. Slang."
December 14, 2006
brtom commented on the word punch
"...and when I was in my best story of the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene, he asked if I had not a good hand at making punch. Yes, Kate, he asked your father if he was a maker of punch!"
Goldsmith, She Stoops, III
January 11, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word punch
"The most popular new drink was punch. Introduced by East India merchants and served in ornate silver or decorated china bowls, punch had five main ingredients (hence its name -- panch means 'five' in Hindi): brandy, wine, lemons (even better, rare limes from the West Indies), sugar and spice. Sometimes rum, or rumbullion, made from the fermented residues of the sugar-refining process -- molasses -- was also added. Unsurprisingly, the mixture was incredibly potent."
--Kate Colquhoun, Taste: The Story of Britain Through Its Cooking (NY: Bloomsbury, 2007), 223
January 18, 2017